podcasts

Free listening practice for IELTS

It’s always great to discover a new source of fantastic listening practice material online. My students have been very enthusiatic about the range of listening practice materials, in video format, available on this site.TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to ideas worth spreading in the areas of Technology, Entertainment and Design. The listening practice material is not specifically for IELTS students but sometimes IELTS students need to push the boundaries of their listening before they start to improve.

Here are six reasons why the TED talks are good IELTS listening practice material:

There are hundreds of talks to listen to.

You can search for talks subject – find something that interests you.

You can search by length – some talks are only 3 minutes long.

You can search by rating – eg funny, beautiful, inspiring.

Some of the talks have subtitles in your language.

This listening practice material is free to use

Visit the TED talks site right now to listen to some interesting and inspiring practice material.

The most important thing you can do before the IELTS listening exam is do lots and lots of listening practice. This post suggests a great, free, online listening resource but there are others. The main thing is that you try to do a little listening every day. There’s no point waiting until the week before the exam before you start to practise your listening : it won’t help. Starting at least three months in advance is a very good idea. (more…)

There’s loads of free listening material on the Internet in the form of podcasts and your listening skills will only get better if you practise before your IELTS exam. The main thing is to get started and do some listening practice as soon as you can. Many IELTS students seem to think that they will only improve their listening skills if they listen to IELTS listening material. This is not true. Listening is listening and it’s all good practice. (more…)

About me

My name is Stephen Taylor and I have been teaching English as a foreign language for over20 years and have helped over 22 different nationalities improve their English language skills. I understand how important a good band score in the IELTS exam is and I know how to help you achieve your target grade.